Insight Guide USA the New South (Insight Guides)

Rating:
Summary: The Old New South
Review: I was born in Tennessee, grew up in South Carolina and lived in Georgia for five years before relocating to Ohio. I bought the Insight Guide To The New South to quell that occasional twinge of homesickness and to learn more about one of my favorite areas in the world.

It is a beautiful looking book, as are all of the Insight Guides. Fantastic full color photos and detailed maps fill the book and the editors do a reasonable job of briefing you on the history and culture of the South. The text is your standard travel guide fare -- light sometimes flowery descriptions that cover most of the must-see destinations of each state.

There are a few problems, though. The hotel and restaurant listings are so incomplete that you wonder why they even bothered to include them. That, along with the bulk of the book (388 pages) makes it more of a coffeetable book than an indisposable, or even convenient, carry-along travel guide.

Even worse, I encountered a few typos (one blurb referenced the state of "Missississippi" and one map happened to include "Cincinati") and a few gaffes (the guide tells you that North Carolina's mountains are in the eastern part of the state and referred to the Atlantic Coast Conference as the "legendary Atlantic Athletic Conference"). And while the book spends a great deal of time and effort praising the booming growth and enterprise of the "New South," it spends even more time on the old Southern standbys -- plantations, Elvis, the Civil War, and "Gone With The Wind," which is mentioned (by my count, which could be wrong) roughly 137 times. All of this, to me, shows a kind of editorial laziness which taints the entire book.

Nevertheless, I do believe this is a worthwhile pre-visit introduction to the South, for the photos alone. If you want a detailed travel companion, this may not be for you. And if you want a real feel for the South, you really just have to go. No book can give you that.